Free Justice for Sara by Erica Spindler

difficult, but that’s life.” She shook off her melancholy. “We have to get together. Catch up.”
    “I’d like that.”
    “Lunch?”
    “Anytime.”
    “How about tomorrow? Noon at Cafe Toile?”
    Kat hesitated. Cafe Toile. They’d toasted Sara’s closing on the cottage there. It’d been the last time they’d celebrated as a family. Not long after, her parents had been dead.
    Another memory to be faced.
    Kat agreed, and as she drove away she saw that Ryan had joined Bitsy beside Merlin. They stood beside each other, watching her drive off. The image of them struck her as wrong. Both intimate and wary.
    It occurred to Kat that she hadn’t asked Bitsy why she had been there. She’d simply assumed she had brought Merlin in for servicing.
    Could Bitsy and Ryan be friends now? No, never. The Bitsy she’d known had hated Ryan Benton’s guts.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tuesday, June 4
2:45 P.M.

    “Luke, Ryan Benton’s here to see you.”
    “Thanks, Trix. Send him back.” Luke hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair. Ryan Benton. It was the second time today he had heard that name. The first had been from Kat McCall’s lips when he asked who she’d been dating all those years ago.
    And now he was here to see him. Interesting.
    The man tapped on the door; Luke stood to greet him. “Ryan, man. Good to see you.”
    He crossed the room. “Hey, Luke, good to see you, too.”
    They shook hands. Luke gestured to one of the chairs in front of the desk, then sat. “How’ve you been? I don’t think our paths have crossed since Mardi Gras.”
    “Doin’ good. The shop’s been busy. You?”
    “Hangin’ in there. What can I do for you?”
    He didn’t answer, instead moved his gaze over the office. “Weird déjà vu thing going on for me. I spent a good bit of time in this office.”
    Luke laughed. He and Ryan had been in the same graduating class at Tammany West High School. He had been a star athlete, Ryan an ace hell-raiser. Although they hadn’t traveled in the same circles, they’d had an odd, mutual respect for each other.
    Ryan steepled his fingers. “The sheriff’s kid and the kid the sheriff was always cuffing. And here we are.”
    “But that’s not what brought you here today.”
    “No.” He paused. “Katherine McCall was in to see me at the shop. She was saying some pretty crazy things, so I figured I better come in. I don’t want any trouble. I’m not that dude anymore.”
    A surprise move by McCall. And Benton. Luke took a notebook, laid it on the desk. “For the record, you and she were seeing each other at the time of her sister’s murder.”
    “Yes.”
    “And what kind of crazy things was she saying today?”
    “That I had something to do with her sister’s death.”
    “Something to do with?”
    Ryan let out a long breath. “That I killed her.”
    “Did you?”
    “Hell, no. I didn’t even know the woman.”
    “Did she tell you I’m reopening the case?”
    He looked annoyed. “She did. That’s why I’m here. I figured I’d better come in and set the record straight.”
    A strategy. He figured it’d look better if he came in. It did in some ways. In others, not so much. “I appreciate that, Ryan.” Luke glanced down at the notebook, then back up at the other man. “So what do you want to tell me?”
    “Man, I hate being in this position. Shit.” He shook his head. “I was messing around with a seventeen-year-old girl. I shouldn’t have been.” He lifted a shoulder. “I was a punk.”
    “You were never interviewed by the cops or the defense lawyers? How come?”
    “Nobody knew about us.”
    “Nobody? That seems hard to believe.”
    “She was underage.”
    “Surely you told your friends or she told hers. Underage doesn’t mean jack to them.”
    “It did to me.”
    “Was your relationship sexual?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did you supply her with alcohol?”
    “Yes.”
    “Drugs?”
    “Weed.” He spread his fingers. “Like I said, I was a stupid, punk kid. I